Technical report: Introduction

Shifting consumption behaviour toward healthy sustainable diets is one of the biggest challenges of food systems today  ^{(footnote 1)}. There is an increasing amount of evidence generated in the area of diet shift, including many academic studies on the problems caused by current diets, and on interventions which could provide solutions. ^{(footnote 2)}  Yet a significant proportion of this evidence is not reflected in policy or practice ^{(footnote 3) (footnote 4) (footnote 5)}.
This project investigates the current evidence on evidence use (including evidence generation, translation and adoption) in policy and practice, in order to understand how it happens, and how the process can be improved, in order to ensure the available evidence is reflected in action. Because there is little research available on evidence use in relation to food systems specifically, the authors developed a conceptual framework (a basis of understanding) for evidence use in relation to diet shift, to be applied in the project. This involved examining the literature on evidence use more broadly, identifying a set of evidence users in food systems and exploring the relevance between the two. 

Specifically, the project addresses the following questions:

1. What is the current evidence on evidence use for policy and practice?
2. What is the evidence on evidence use around diet shift?
3. What are the barriers to effective evidence use (that could be applied to diet shift)?
4. What are the enablers of effective evidence use (that could be applied to diet shift)?